religious life, or even of intellectual life. Let us very briefly consider each of
these varied aspects of the subject in due order.

§ 1. It is somewhat difficult to form a correct opinion of the position which woman
held among the Pre-Islamic Arabs. Muhammadan stories tend in many instances to exaggerate
the degradation of her status and the necessarily attendant low state of morality which
prevailed in the "Times of Ignorance." It is certain that divorce and polygamy
were sanctioned and extensively practised, that incestuous unions 1 were of
very frequent occurrence, and thatat least among the lower classeswoman had few
rights. She could not inherit her husband's property, but was herself inherited along with
it by the nearest heir, even if he happened to be her own stepson. Yet on the other hand
women of noble family not unfrequently held a high position; and there are indications of
the existence of quite a chivalrous2

1 Yet vide Ash Shahristani's testimony (الملل والنحل quoted by Abu'l Fida, Fleischer's ed.,
p. 180) to the effect that all such unions were held in abhorrence among them.
He says:

2 This is shown, e.g., in some of the poems of the Mu'allaqat, and in Arabic
traditions preserved by Muslim historians.

THE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM.

195

spirit among some at least of the tribes. Muhammad limited polygamy to a certain extent
by 1 decreeing that no man but he himself should be allowed to have more than
four undivorced wives living at the same time. But he permitted 2 divorce,
though he is said to have disapproved of it, enjoining, however, upon the husband
who divorced his wife for an insufficient cause, the repayment of a certain part of her
dowry.3 Concubinage, like polygamy and divorce, he sanctioned by uttering
verses, which he said were the words of GOD Himself, and in which definite rules to
regulate these matters were laid down. His example in such matters showed how thoroughly
he approved of all these 4 evils. The Qur'an not only recognizes these things,
but it legalizes and sanctions them for all time. Among the poorer classes of the
population of Muhammadan lands even up to the present day, the wives are the slaves of
their husband, while in the higher circles of society they are his playthings. The idea of
woman being created by GOD to be man's helpmeet, the sharer of his joys and the partner of
his sorrows, seems never to have entered